Manifestations of Slovak and Rusyn Identity in Vasil Stefan Koban’s The Sorrows of Marienka and Excerpt from Michal

• Authors: Diana Židová
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Vasil Stefan Koban (1918-2007) was an American writer of Slovak origin. His cultural identity is, however, somewhere between Rusyn and Slovak, but all his writings were published in Slovak journals such as Slovakia, or Almanac run by National Slovak Society. The Slovak translation of his only novel, The Sorrows of Marienka, was published in 2006 with the subtitle Púť Slovákov za lepším životom do Ameriky. The book is about the life of his mother Marienka who after marriage to Ivan Kinda emigrates from Jarabina to Conemaugh, an American coal mine town. Excerpt from Michal: Biography of a Galician Coal Miner, 1906-1933 is a revised version of the story in which Michal, Koban’s father and Marienka’s second husband, loses his leg in an accident and he must stay in a hospital for a year. In both stories Koban uses lots of Slovak words, but on the other hand, he mentions that Michal helped to build the Russian Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist in Conemaugh with other Galicians, his natives, since he was born in Habowa. Although he considered himself to be of Slovak origin, Koban is enlisted under Carpatho-Rusyn Literature in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature. The article focuses on manifestations of Slovak and Rusyn identity in Koban’s two most notable literary works.

Keywords

EN

autobiographical novel; Slovak identity; Rusyn identity; ethnicity; minorities

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: CLEaR
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 39-46

Dates

published

2016-03-01

online

2016-05-18

Contributors

author

Diana Židová

• University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia

References

• Alzo, Lisa A. Three Slovak Women. Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1999. Print.
• Koban, Vasil Stefan. The Sorrows of Marienka. Middletown: Jednota Printery, 1979. Print.
• Koban, Vasil Stefan. “Excerpt from Michal: Biography of a Galician Coal Miner, 1906-1933.” Slovakia 29.53-54 (1980-1981): 105-125. Print.
• Koban, Vasil Stefan. “They Were Not Strangers.” Kalendár - Almanac. Ed. Joseph Stefka. Pittsburgh: National Slovak Society of the USA, 1985. 56-59. Print.
• Koban, Vasil Stefan. “‘Over-The-Hill” Gang Meet In Argument Park.’” Kalendár - Almanac. Ed. Joseph Stefka. Pittsburgh: National Slovak Society of the USA, 1988. 44-54. Print.
• Koban, Vasil Stefan. “Heavenly Father.” Kalendár - Almanac. Ed. Joseph Stefka. Pittsburgh: National Slovak Society of the USA, 1991. 44-48. Print.
• Koban, Vasil Stefan. Marienkine žiale. Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo Spolku slovenských spisovateľov, 2006. Print.
• Magocsi, Paul Robert. Our People: Carpatho-Rusyns and Their Descendants in North America. 4th rev. ed. Ontario: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 2004. Print.
• Rusinko, Elain. “Carpatho-Rusyn Literature.” The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature. Vol. 1. Ed. Emanuel S. Nelson. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2005. 392-396. Print.
• Wilkes, Paul. “The Sorrows of Marienka” Rev. of The Sorrows of Marienka by Vasil Stefan Koban. Slovakia 29.53-54 (1980-1981): 157-159. Print.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/clear-2016-0004